docs: def remove_leading_garbage_lines_from_reference_section(ref_sectn):
      """Sometimes, the first lines of the extracted references are completely
         blank or email addresses. These must be removed as they are not
         references.
         @param ref_sectn: (list) of strings - the reference section lines
         @return: (list) of strings - the reference section without leading
          blank lines or email addresses.
      """
      p_email = re.compile(ur'^\s*e\-?mail', re.UNICODE)
      while ref_sectn and (ref_sectn[0].isspace() or p_email.match(ref_sectn[0])):
          ref_sectn.pop(0)
      return ref_sectn